You'll Get Used To It
by Sinead Rivka
Summary: Crossover of KR and KR2008. Mike and his sister Gabe reveal to Agent Torres and the rest of Knight Research what it is that is really going on at the old Knight Estate, shocking them with the existence of the original KARR, KITT, and Michael Knight. Ch5up
1. Chapter 1

You'll Get Used to It  
By Sinead

_**Author's Note:**__ I'm not planning to make this more than a one-shot to get the plotbunnies out. If it evolves into something more, great, if not, that's okay, too, but I can't concentrate on "Black Hawk Skimming" while this idea is kicking around in the back of my head. Talk about annoyance. So please bear with me while I just put this one out there! I don't expect it to be great, just something to get the stupid bunny out of my head __so __I __can __stop sneezing.__ I'm allergic._

.o.

The kettle whistled shrilly in the kitchen attached to the garage of the Foundation's property for a good half minute, waking the man sleeping on the couch. He spun, pulling out weaponry as he did so, only to stare at the young woman pulling her short brown hair up and tying it off while making her way to the kettle. He made a move to angrily go into the open kitchen, but the deep growl of an angrier engine stopped him short. Kitt was sitting peacefully, double-scanner running smoothly back and forth. He turned further and saw a new Pontiac Firebird, the engine snarling at him, advancing very slowly, a golden scanner making its way back and forth at a quicker pace than Kitt's.

The Knight Industries Three Thousand spoke. "Mike, I don't think that it's a good idea to be holding that gun right now."

"You gonna get my back?"

"Not against him."

A young voice called out, "Karr! You leave 'im alone or I'll wait another day to get that mud out of your grille and engine!" She walked out with two mugs, holding one out to Michael Traceur and moving past him to step between him and up to the still-snarling Firebird, resting her shins against the bumper and yawning. Mike held the mug of black coffee in his left hand while his right held his gun loosely.

A voice deeper than Kitt's spoke smoothly to the young woman. "You wish for something that I cannot guarantee. He still holds weaponry."

"Junior, could you get your driver to at least put the safety on?" the young woman laughed, hazel eyes almost green as she looked to the Mustang.

"Mike, I believe that it would be wise to listen to her. I cannot predict any of the outcomes of this situation."

"Morning, Mi— oh dear Lord."

"Good morning Mr. Graiman!" came the bright chirp from the young woman while she climbed onto the black hood of the Firebird, settling to sit cross-legged and holding her mug of blond coffee between her hands. "I know that you asked me to call before I came over, but Karr needs a bit of work done as soon as possible, and I really didn't think that any normal garage would understand how to handle him correctly."

"_Nobody_ handles me!" Karr growled, causing Mike to freeze up mid-sip of his coffee, trying to decide to run up, grab the girl and get behind Kitt or to get into Kitt and attack.

Anticipating his driver's pending decision, the Mustang moved to gently herd Mike away from the black-tempered Karr. The young woman looked over at the movement, watching Mike, then looked up at the older man who was walking closer, his voice low. "Karr . . . easy now. You're here for upgrades, and I am honored that you trust your driver enough to come here. Please calm down."

Recognizing the aged voice of one of the original creators, Karr's engine immediately calmed down to a purr, but still a bit of a dangerous one. Walking up to the Trans-Am, Charles reached out fearlessly to smooth his hand over the black paint. "You still have the old molecular-bonded shell, correct?"

"Yes, Mr. Graiman."

"Woah, woah here . . . old what, now? And who is the girl?" Mike had put the mug down on a cleared workbench while coming to stand in front of Kitt's fender.

"Ease up, Mike," Sarah said in a laugh, coming to stand beside him. She had been right behind her father, and her eyes were wide and happy to be seeing this new-to-her AI. Karr "snorted," his engine almost stalling in the expression, but didn't move when the young genius leaned against his fender, her hand resting upon the black paint.

The sound of a third engine rumbled as one final black car rolled into the garage. A man just past middle-age cut the engine and stood out. Mike frowned.

"Am I on time?"

"I believe your timing is impeccable, Mr. Knight," Sarah said as she moved away from Karr to lean against the Mustang that she almost considered to be her baby, but at the same time a good friend who was cocky enough to make you grin, but not so conceited to make you want to take a baseball bat to his headlights.The adjunct professor nodded to the younger woman, giving her the floor. The hazel-gazed young woman slid off of the black Firebird and smirked at the former FLAG operative, who shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against his car. Mike stared hard at it for a moment before looking up at the voice of the girl who had been in the garage before he had woken up. "My name is Gabrielle Knight, Mike. I'm your half sister."

"Wait, _what_?" The young man snarled at their father, "So you abandoned me, but kept the little girl?!"

"Hey, hothead," she said, her voice almost as dangerous as Karr's had been in the last five minutes. "Lemme finish. I grew up without him around, too. You were the lucky one. You were planned for. I wasn't."

"I'm—"

"Dad, I know. You've said that twice a day for the last two years." She sighed and smiled at the former operative who was watching her with worry clearly evident upon his face.

"She's right, Michael."

Everything in the garage stopped at the voice.

Karr swung away from his driver to stare at the smaller, older Trans-Am. A red scanner that had been dark, hidden, ran back and forth once with a soft whoosh before the car rolled forward a few feet non-threateningly to come to a complete stop a few feet away from Gabrielle. "Hello, Miss Knight."

"Kitt, I thought you were . . . that you were gone. Deactivated," Charles said softly, walking closer to the car.

"Why thank you for your concern, Mister Graiman. I will be sure to express the same sentiments in return if ever I find you in a similar situation." The familiar, harmless sarcasm rolled over the older man.

He smiled, then clasped his hands behind his back. "What do you need done, old friend?"

"Overhaul. My neuro-processor is slowing down, and I cannot protect Michael in the state that I am currently being reduced to." The first Kitt gave a very human sigh. "It is disconcerting to be unable to interact with a situation with a lowered rate of information processing rate than when I had been first activated."

Karr growled, coming to rest bumper-to-bumper with the first Kitt, resting at an angle from the second AI. "Brother . . ."

Kitt-the-younger spoke up. "I am not sure that I am understanding the entirety of this situation, Mister Graiman."

Smiling, Gabrielle took the hint from the nod she received from the old man, and turned to look at the Mustang. "Junior, you're looking at your namesake . . . who could arguably have been called your father. The Knight Industries Two Thousand. The newer Firebird is the Knight Automated Roving Robot. Karr. Just like you and Mike are partners, and how Kitt and Michael are partners, Karr is mine, my partner. He was the original AI that Knight Industries produced and activated, however there was initially a problem with the original programming that had been fixed over time and through human contact."

"They called it more than a problem," Karr said quietly. "They called me murderous."

Her hand went out to rest upon the black hood, and she leaned against it, then changed the conversation. "Mr. Graiman, I can work with Dad on cleaning Karr if you want to focus upon Kitt."

"Which Kitt?" Mike asked, still half-glaring at everyone around him, feeling like a tornado had just touched down upon his world. There was a new person who was apparently as well-versed in the realms of having an AI around them at all times, and the fact that she moved as naturally around the black monsters as Graiman and Sarah did was only a little disconcerting.

She turned to smile at him benevolently. "I call the Three Thousand by 'Junior'."

"And I might end up resenting that nickname," was the Mustang's growl.

Mike sighed. "Buddy, I might end up being annoyed with everyone calling you that, myself."

"Rookies," Kitt the elder said with amusement. "They'll get used to it, Michael."

Michael chuckled and walked up to rest his arm against the roof of the car. "Trust me, Pal; if they need help 'adjusting,' you think that you'll be up to it?"

"If not me, then Karr. Of course . . . we all know who will be the more gentle between us."

Gabrielle chuckled and moved away while Karr followed behind her, never more than two feet away. "I almost pity them. C'mon, let's hook you two old geezers up to the diagnostic machines and see what Kitt's problem is, and what's personality disorder of the week Karr has."

"Hmph!" Karr jerked forward, scooping her up onto his hood to cruise over to the work area of the garage, causing tension to rise again, even though Gabrielle's laughter immediately dissipated it. She perched upon his hood and then stood, legs braced so that when he stopped before a machine, she vaulted onto a workbench to reach up and grab a few cables, jumping down to catch the popped hood that Karr shoved upwards. Propping it open and then reaching into the complex engine to plug in a few cables, she pulled her hands out to take her sweatshirt off and toss it onto a stool a few feet away.

Michael and Kitt came over in a more stately, tired fashion, and she hooked Kitt up as well, while "Junior" and Mike followed them cautiously. Sarah and her father read the screen at the same speed, then instantly burst into motion and babbling at Kitt, who answered all their questions as quickly as he could.

Mike sighed and came up beside Gabrielle and their father, seeing the similarities between their forms and faces. They might not have had the same mother, but there was a lot that their father had given them in looks . . . and Mike knew that his and his father's fighting spirit were one and the same. He wondered what his . . . his _sister_ was like under the gruff exterior. Gabrielle looked at her half-brother. "Is that an expensive shirt? Or a favorite one?"

"Goodwill special."

"Good." She grinned, reached into Karr's engine, and tossed a hunk of mud at his chest. He stared down at the brown stain, then blinked and picked it off to toss it at her back with a grin before asking, "Since when do AIs go off-roading?"

"Since we had to get to a house that had no paved road," Karr growled while he felt his driver reaching in and pulling muck out, putting it into a bucket while Michael just stood by. The last time that he had tried to help her clean Karr out . . . well . . . he had bruises for two weeks, and let's leave it at that. "Michael, are you serious that this is your offspring? The male, that is. He seems to be lacking even half the intelligence that you normally possess."

Gabrielle smirked and didn't even call her car on that one. Grabbing a brush and dunking it into a bucket of clean water, she stuck her thin, strong arm into the engine to begin to brush some components off, repeating the dunking to clean the bristles while she went for a thorough cleansing of the mucky engine block.

". . . did your car just insult me?"

"You'll get used to it," Michael and Gabrielle chorused, grinning.

.o.

_**Author's Note 2:**__ I hate plot-bugs that bite at you until you can't WAIT to smack 'em. This will be less than five chapters at most._


	2. Chapter 2

You'll Get Used to It  
By Sinead

Chapter Two

.o.

"How did you get the other AI? What's-his-name . . . Karr."

Pulling her head out of the fridge, the young woman looked up at her half-brother before looking back into the cold box, reaching in to pull out a beer and open it. She walked to the sink and dumped it down the drain amid her brother's rather loud protestations.

"That was my last one! Aw, c'mon, girl, how come you gotta _do_ that?!" He tried to snag the can from her hand, but she stomped lightly upon his toes, causing him to curse and back away while she finished pouring it down the drain.

"Because it's vile yak pee and you know better than to allow it to ruin your liver." She tossed the can into a recycling bin and went back to the refrigerator to pull out a can of V8, shaking it as she walked back towards the garage. She answered his first question on the way out there. "As for Karr . . . well . . . I knew Dad since I was eleven, so that's gonna be . . . almost eleven years ago."

"You're almost twenty-two?"

"Two years younger than you, yeah. Anyway." She rested the can against her forehead to feel the chill of the metal there. "I moved in with Dad two years ago when Mom died. I knew about Kitt when I was sixteen, so for almost six years. He looks a lot different on the inside than when he had been first built, so you're almost able to think that he's a custom and not something else entirely. He was the first car that I drove. Mom was too sick to teach me, so she left that up to Dad."

"I'm . . . I'm sorry," Mike whispered, looking down. "I lost my own mother recently."

"I know." Gabrielle's voice was soft as she replied to him. "That's part of why I've been asked to come under the Foundation and help out with certain missions. They want to turn this into a family of operatives."

"That implies that we have to provide the third generation."

"Yeah, I'm not thrilled with that, either."

The two paused and then sighed simultaneously. The man looked toward where their father was sitting, conversing with a temporary CPU that was housing Kitt until he could be transferred into a new one built specifically for him. They were currently looking to upgrade his body as well. "I guess that we got that from Dad."

Karr growled behind them, but Gabrielle sighed and turned to look at the scanner, knowing that it was part of how he saw. "Hey. Hush. Mike, do you know what would have happened if someone had found out that Dad had us?"

"Lemme think about that for a moment . . . how about . . . nothing? We're not important!"

"Wrong," she hissed, looking up at his face with a glare. "At worst, we would have been killed before his eyes. When we were younger, unprotected, we were leverage against him. I had been safe because of where I was located. You had been safe because Dad and your Mom had split and you and she had left the area to hide." The look in her eyes gradually softened and saddened, and she turned around to enter the open driver's side door that Karr had opened for her. He left the garage with her curled up in his driver's seat.

Kitt rolled up behind his young driver, his deep voice soft, curious. "Are you all right, Mike?"

"No." Turning, he faced his . . . _his_ car, his friend, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I think I just made a mistake."

"You really did, boyo."

Whirling to face his father, Mike was shocked to see the look of complete and utter desolation upon his face. Michael walked up to his son and stood a pace away. "You know the pain of your mother dying for you. I had lost her a long while back. Gabe's mother died protecting her. They had tried to capture the girl when she had been twelve, a year after I made contact. I had gotten to her first, but I wasn't fast enough to get to her home to get her mother. They tortured her, poisoned her. And she never really recovered, but was overjoyed that she had protected our little girl. This is why I didn't come to see you. I didn't want your mother to go through the same, or for you to be taken from me, too."

"You loved Mom."

"More than you know."

"What about Gabe's mom?"

Smiling, shaking his head, he whispered, "I loved her, too. When your mother and I split for your dual safeties . . . I won't lie and say that it didn't hurt. I loved your mother more than any other woman I had ever met, known, you name it."

"You're a player."

"When I was young, yes, I had been. Just like you are, now. Trust me . . . Sarah Graiman is a keeper. Don't let her go, son."

"Since when did this turn into a pep talk about my relational statuses?" Mike glared at his father defensively, but the man held his hands up in defeat, smiling reassuringly. The son sighed and then said, "So you came onto Gabrielle's mom."

"Opposite way. She came onto me after a year and a half of being single again."

"Who was she?"

Michael went silent, and his back and shoulders stiffened. But it wasn't him that answered. It was Gabrielle herself, back from the quick drive to clear her mind. Her voice was sad. "Her name was Bonnie Barstow."

.o.

"How are you holding up, Kitt?"

"The CPU feels odd. How long until I will be able to go into the new one?"

Gabrielle smiled and sat upon a stool beside Kitt's CPU, her hand resting upon it. Her voice was quiet, calming. "Very soon. They're working on a few things as far as it goes for a new body for you as well."

"I heard you tell your brother about Bonnie."

Looking down, finding that she had been stroking circles and wavy lines upon the CPU, Gabrielle sighed and kept silent. She didn't like talking about her mother and the choice that her mother had made to protect the safety of her family. With a deep breath, she whispered, "Yeah, Kitt."

The second-oldest AI scanned the room and saw that Karr was currently rolling up in a very silent manner behind Mike. "Look. Quick."

Kitt Junior was ignoring Karr, but as soon as the snarky AI revved his engine loudly and blared his horn behind Mike, startling the man into drawing a weapon and firing a bullet at the windshield, the young AI was after Karr like a bat out of hell. His mean laughter echoing behind him, Karr shot out of the garage, proving his better maneuverability over the Mustang as he hit a high speed the second he had a straight line to the door. Kitt the Second was still new to his body, so he moved a bit more gingerly, giving up precious seconds while Karr escaped.

Mike, panting, pointed at the two AIs currently leading a high-speed chase off of the Knight property. "I am _not amused_!"

"Well, don't look at me," Gabrielle said, her hand still moving slowly over the CPU shell. "He does these kinda things on his own. I'm his friend first, partner second, after all. I don't control him, just . . . advise him when he asks for it."

"Wait . . . what?"

Kitt decided that now was the time to inform Mike about Karr's past, and he asked the young man to replace Gabrielle at his side. Smiling, she moved back towards the kitchen to make some coffee. Ten minutes later, Karr rolled smoothly back into the garage. Something about him just screamed smug retaliation for something. Mike looked up at Gabrielle, who stood right at the entrance for Karr's current parking spot, her foot going up to rest on his bumper when he came to a halt before her. "All right, hotshot. What did you do?"

"Oh, nothing much, sweets." The tone dripped with a smug smirk, the kind that would be resting upon an oily car salesman's face after someone came back with a lemon.

"Karr," Gabrielle growled out warningly.

"What? I did nothing of great importance, other than not get caught."

"Caught?" the other three beings in the room chorused almost perfectly.

Michael and Charles strode into the room, neither looking very happy as they walked over to the two humans and two AIs. Charles spoke. "It has come to my attention that the Three Thousand is off the property."

"Yeah, Karr annoyed him by almost literally scaring the crap outta me," Mike replied as he cracked his knuckles.

"Do you know where he is, Mike?"

"Nope."

"Karr? If you would be so kind as to inform us of the Three Thousand's location?"

Snickering in a decidedly human fashion, the Trans Am replied, "By now, he is more than likely in the impound. I told you that I hadn't been caught. I didn't say that Junior came to the same fate."

Standing and kicking a tire before storming off to find a car, Mike snarled over his shoulder, "Gabe! You still owe me an explanation of how you and Karr met up, because I really wanna know how a sweet girl like you is partnered with the biggest jackass AI on the planet! For the love of _God_. The _impound._"

As soon as he was out of sight and Sarah with him to drive Kitt back, Michael spluttered before giving way to deep chuckles. Charles let his grin crack through while Karr murmured in a very pleased fashion, "Kitt asked me to teach Junior a few things. Of course I'm going to get the rookie _in_ trouble until he manages to keep _out_ of it."

Michael walked up to pat the black hood, still laughing. "I would have had Kitt do the same thing, only worse!"

"Oh?"

"State police. Not just the local police."

"Mister Knight, were you called by the authorities?"

"No, Charles was."

"Mister Graiman, who did you speak to?"

"Agent Rivai . . . Oh, Lord."

"That's right, Mister Graiman. I got him caught by the FBI."

.o.

_**Author's Note:** Yeah. I did a second chapter. So sue me. I kinda like the idea of Karr tormenting the rookies. Everyone, thank you for your support, reviews, watches, and favorites! You're making this happen, you know. Without reviews and the inspiration from those reviews, this story wouldn't be going onto a second, possibly a third chapter._


	3. Chapter 3

You'll Get Used to It

By Sinead

Chapter Three

.o.

"For the _last time_, will you tell me how you and Karr met?"

"No. Not until you and Junior are able to keep out of trouble." Gabrielle cracked her neck and went back under Karr's hood, replacing the coolant just as a precaution. Her partner had been running his engine hard while causing what seemed to be mass mayhem to everyone but herself, Charles and Michael. Even Sarah was kept out of the loop.

"You and your pet _monster_ have way too much in common," Mike growled as he turned and walked away. "You shut up and don't say anything when you don't want to."

Curling a lip, the young woman stood straight, not hitting her head upon the open hood as she did so out of habit. "I got that trait from my _mother_, Michael."

"_Don't_ call me that," the man barked, turning on his heel to point to her angrily.

She imitated his pose, causing Karr to rumble. Only those who knew him well knew that it wasn't an aggressive sound. It was one of worry, specifically used for two beings, and those two beings _alone_: Kitt and Gabrielle. The young woman took a step closer. "I will call you whatever I want to until you're proven worthy in the field!"

"_I'm_ the one who was in the Army Rangers!"

"Yeah, and _I'm_ the one who has been doing this work of espionage and undercover matters since the day after I turned seventeen! That was before you even were _enlisted_, pal!"

Kitt sighed, causing Michael, who was hiding behind the new shell for his partner, to look up at the AI's CPU. "Hm?"

"This is going to be a long one."

"The fight?"

"You know best of all that the fight itself isn't the problem. It's the repercussions of that fight." Kitt paused, then seemed to go a bit more quiet than previously. "But once they're through with their differences, I know that they will become a better team with their respective AIs and each other than even you and I had been."

"You sound glad for that."

"I am. We need someone like him, and we need someone like her. Mike's team is reminiscent of our original one, and that in itself is not a bad thing for him at the moment. It's when she proves to continually have a more aptitude and tact for diplomatic situations than he ever will." Kitt fell silent for a moment before murmuring, "More than that, there will be a day where she will go independent, and he will want to follow."

"So you're just being a rogue who can't care less about the team!"

Wincing at his daughter's words, Michael sighed and leaned his head against the prow of the new car that did not yet house an AI. He heard his son snarl back, "And what would _you_ know about this so-called 'team' that you seem to know more about than _I_ do!"

"And if I do?"

Kitt's voice was quiet. "You're not going to stop this?"

"Pal . . . I can't stop this. Mike won't accept any guidance from me, and Gabrielle won't allow herself to lose this fight, and she won't let anyone stop her from keeping this fight going until she beats it into the ground." Michael was getting old, and it just wasn't in him to get into something that would only exhaust him, especially since he had been finally allowed to rest from missions once the new team had been formed.

"Very well; I shall take things into my own hands."

"You don't have—"

"Michael Traceur! Gabrielle Knight! You will stop this meaningless bicker immediately and listen to me!" Kitt's voice was authoritative, a rare trait for him. As they started to protest to his refereeing, he spoke over them, boosting his volume. "Now, I don't care _who_ started it, but the both of you are disregarding boundaries that the other has! Mister Traceur, stop asking about Karr! She will speak upon it if she trusts you, and only then! Miss Knight, stop haggling him about his work ethic! He will change or appropriate measures will be taken! Are we clear upon this matter?"

"Look, you old—"

"I understand, Kitt," Gabrielle said, her voice tight and angry.

"Mike, please come here," Kitt beckoned with his tone.

"You think that I'm gonna—"

"_Now_, please. Karr is displeased with your behavior, and even though he is still hooked up with a machine, he _will_ take you out to protect his driver." Kitt's voice was underlined with Karr's growl. "I would not advise angering him further."

Grumbling under his breath, Mike walked over to the AI, not seeing his father at all as Michael snuck over to the other side of the empty car. Gabrielle was still glaring at her half-brother, and saw her father move. He held a hand up, asking her for silence, to keep the secret. The younger Kitt was sitting very still, unsure of what to do in this confrontation of his elder AI and his driver. He was literally forbidden to harm any other AI, save for special occasions where he would have to get vocal codes from Charles, Mike, and Sarah, but with one singular override: If Michael were in physical trouble and close to death.

Gabrielle stuck her head under Karr's hood again, hearing his voice speaking softly. "There's something wrong with how he speaks to you."

"He's still angry that Dad kept me."

"Be that as it may, it is not an excuse to be angry at _you_ in result. I do not like him."

"I know, Karr. I don't like him much right now, either."

"Unhook me. I have another something planned."

Grinning, she unplugged the AI and closed the hood. With a roar of his engine, Karr turned himself around to Kitt-the-elder, interrupting the low conversation. "Brother, let me speak with the boy. Junior, follow behind." Opening his passenger seat, he said, "Get in, Mike."

"Kitt, are you gonna just sit there and let him order you?" Mike asked, not moving from his spot by the bodiless AI.

"He will not harm you. I think that it is wise to see what he might have to say."

Gabrielle stood to one side, wiping her hands off. "Karr, what are you going to talk to him about?"

"Something that needs to be said. I will fill you in later."

"Are you allowed to do that?" the younger Kitt asked.

"Yes. We are partners, not a mother and her child. We can make independent decisions from one another. When she is going on a date with a man and uses a regular car, I do not interfere nor ask about the night unless she comes home and wants to talk to me about this man. I will never pry. The same is with her. I take Michael out to talk with him, and if it's something she can hear about, I tell her. Now, Mike. In, please. I will cause you no harm."

.o.

Gabrielle was asleep by the time Karr, Kitt and Mike returned. She was sleeping with her head on her father's lap, curled around a pillow. Mike sat and whispered, "She trusts him after all that had happened . . . I don't know if I would even be _sane_ after the trauma she suffered."

Michael chuckled, then murmured, "Karr is an amazing AI. Programmed to preserve himself, he didn't have any of the programming to make moral or ethical decisions. Being around Gabrielle, and being around his younger brother, has brought him to begin to adjust himself."

"But didn't he write his own programming?"

Frowning, the father whispered, "How did you know that?"

"Kitt told me."

"Kitt shouldn't know about Karr."

"Well, he did."

They stared at each other for a long moment. The garage door opening didn't even break their gaze. It took the person who entered to knock something over to get three people automatically awake and aware to everything, and for three handguns to be aimed at the intruder. Mike sighed and shoved his Glock into the waistband of his pants at the small of his back again. "Agent Rivai, would you _please_ let us know when you're coming in?"

She had pulled a gun at the three clicks of the others, but didn't put it away until she identified the elder Michael Knight. But as she stared at Gabrielle, she realized that she didn't know this young woman. "Have a new girlfriend who likes to pack some heavy weaponry, Mike?"

Rivai was shocked when all three blanched and made faces. The young woman put her compact sidearm in the same place that Mike had put his, standing and stretching her arms above her head. "Sorry. I'm not into sex. I have a car to babysit." She started to walk past Rivai, but stopped at seeing others who had been gathered around Junior, staring at her. She cocked an eyebrow, looked to Sarah and Charles who started to come down the stairs, then chuckled. "Besides. Even if I did want to have sex with someone, I will bet my father's classic Trans-Am on the fact that I would stop quite a bit away from having at with my own brother."

The elder woman's head spun to look at the young lady, but she was already walking to the new Trans-Am that was sitting between what _had_ to be the old Kitt and the rather obvious Mustang. "Karr, how is your research going?"

"Did you just say that you _babysit_ me?"

"You'd do the same for me, love. Want that undercarriage of yours cleaned while you're just sitting there?"

A pistol was aimed directly at the young woman's head. "Step away from the vehicle, lady. Now."

Karr's engine snarled to life, an unholy keen of undiluted anger accompanying it. Gabrielle stopped her movements, but fearlessly turned to look at the man who was holding her at gunpoint. "Mike told me about your Halloween scare. Let me reassure you that you are not looking at the new Karr."

"My driver's daughter has a point," the first KITT said primly, startling everyone in the room, and not just because there was an edge to that voice. The edge was easily identified as contempt, anger. "I know for a fact that the Karr you think of is not the Karr that is currently sitting beside me. I wouldn't trust the new Karr."

"But you trust the old one?" the man barked before realizing that he . . . wasn't looking for a human. And his eyes widened as he saw the CPU with a steady red light watching him.

A second light joined it, blinking in time with the syllables. "After seeing that he was truly different, yes. Now put your weapon away. You are against three AIs who rather like Gabrielle, and two of them are quite mobile."

"I'm only against two, then," the man replied in a very low tone, renewing his grip upon his weapon.

"Not quite. You see, Agent Torres, I will be coordinating their defensive measures." Kitt paused, then added smugly, "And it was Karr who got my namesake caught by your agents as part of the tutoring process that my brother and I are undertaking to bring the young Kitt up to speed."

"You . . . and _that monster_ . . . are teaching _Kitt_?" His voice was a snarl, and he turned his eyes away from Gabrielle to glare at Kitt and Mike, of which pair the human was grinning.

It was all she needed to knock the weapon away from his hand and dart towards Karr, moving expertly to jump up, catch her foot on his hood and turn her shoulder so that she rolled over his roof, one hand outstretched so that she gripped his spoiler, which he pushed up to give her the boost she needed to springboard into the air and land with gun drawn in a crouch, hair falling around her shoulders.

Karr's engine snarled deeply until the man backed away from him, and thus, his sidearm which was between the Trans-Am's front tires, eyes wide at the maneuver that had just been pulled up. Mike walked forward fearlessly, paused before Karr, then reached under the growling AI's bumper to pick the weapon up and walk back towards Rivai, handing it to her. "I'd suggest that you don't let anyone have sidearms in here anymore. But then again, who am I to really suggest things, you know? All I'm good for is driving Kitt around and being a charity case in the views of some people." He gave Agent Torres a piercing look, then walked over to lean against Kitt's fender. Mike was having too great of a time to quit, so he looked to his father, then over his shoulder at Gabrielle, then to Charles. All three nodded in sequence. "So. Want to know why we have three AIs in one room, one of which is getting a new neural network and processor overhaul?"

Billy hesitantly raised his hand. "AI convention to better their kind?"

Gabrielle slowly lowered her weapon, then blinked to Mike. "Actually, he's right."

". . . I am?"

Putting it away, she walked up along Karr's side, her hand tracing over his lines before levering herself onto his hood. It shocked many when the snarling diminished to a lower register, almost as if Karr himself were trying to say, "She's mine, you see? And I'll kill you if you hurt her. Mine." Gabrielle knew that it wasn't far from the truth, and she rested her hand upon the center of his hood, up by the windshield. "First off, lemme introduce myself. I'm Gabrielle Knight, Mike's half-sister. We share the same Daddy Dearest, the first Michael Knight, originally Michael Long."

"Seriously, what a sucky porn name." Zoë crossed her arms over her chest with a smirk, looking to Mike through her hair.

Michael stood up and looked towards the Asian tech, who saw his face, blinked, then winced. The man walked over to Kitt's CPU, resting his hand upon it. "I was born into that name and was given the Knight surname by Wilton Knight. I tend to not argue with what life has been given me."

"No, you just argue with those in charge and manage to beat my frame into scrap metal because of your idiocy on some missions," Kitt grumbled.

Billy grinned, wanting to have a conversation with the first Kitt. "Like father, like son."

"Quite," came the dry reply.

"Moving on, men," Gabrielle interrupted as she leaned back against Karr's windshield. "I'm Bonnie Barsow's daughter as well. So I know a lot about the Foundation for Law And Government, and the resulting FBI fringe involvement." She drew in a deep breath. "As well as the decree for the KARR and KITT AIs to be reborn in a sense. My Karr has been through more than enough, which has brought him around to want to have a steady driver. The KARR-2 is nowhere near that point, and as you suspected, Mr. Graiman, he is still on the loose, no matter what anyone else may think or say."

"What?" Charles whispered, his forehead puckering into a frown.

"That is impossible for anyone to verify." Torres folded his arms over his chest, glaring at the young woman dispassionately.

"Kitt, you can track Junior's movements without any trouble, correct?"

"Down to within eight feet of his actual location and within five percent of his functioning capabilities. Furthermore, there are moments where I am able to actually understand what he is processing, if the situation is stressing him. He and I share many of the same programming defaults, which is why system harmonization is possible." Kitt paused, then said in a tone that held more emotion, and was pleased. "I am proud of my namesake's achievements, especially within the recent months."

"So if _you_ can track this Kitt's mind and location . . ." Billy looked to Karr.

"Oh my God. He's the lynchpin," Charles whispered.

And Gabrielle smiled. "That's why Billy was right on the money about bettering the AIs. We're preparing to go on a hunt."

.o.

_**Author's Note:**__ Sorry that this took so long to update, but I've been dealing with college courses and writing papers. So this naturally took a backseat. After seeing more of the Knight Rider 2008 series, I am even more impressed with how things have been developed, and I'm really enjoying it! I can't wait to see how they bring the characters along, and I believe that we might just have a good, long science-fiction series on the TV that's so far been very good in comparison to the other crap that's been going on._

_Anywhos! Thank you for reading, please review and thank you to all those who have watched this story!_


	4. Chapter 4

You'll Get Used to It  
By Sinead

Chapter Four

.o.

Zoë and Billy were watching as another showdown started to form out of the statement, "We're going on a hunt." Both were sitting on a bet, the object matter being Torres either cracking his cool façade or giving into a hissy fit that someone had gone above his head and cut him off at the pass, as it were. Billy said that the man wouldn't crack. Zoë was confident that he would.

Torres gave Gabrielle a droll glare. "Really. And you propose to do this, how?"

She chuckled, and Karr backed up onto the built-in lift. Sliding off of the black hood, she turned and hit the button for it to be raised, sliding under Karr the moment she had enough room, turning the lights on so that she could continue to do general maintenance. "Yes, really, and we'll talk strategy later."

With a scoff, Torres looked away, then at the young woman again. "You think that you can handle Karr."

"No, actually. Karr can handle himself. Just like how I handle myself. We work as a partnership." She ducked back out from Karr's undercarriage and looked over at her father, then at Mike. "Right. Sarah, come help me."

"I can help," Billy piped up, taking his ten dollars from his coworker as the man turned around and began to storm off silently.

"You probably can, but I doubt that Karr would let you." She smiled and shrugged. "Get to know him, get him to trust you. Torres, take a pill and sit down before you bust a vein in your forehead."

Both Zoë and Billy watched Torres stop in his tracks, his shoulders tightening in anger, but then continue on, until he was in the kitchen area of the garage. Even then, there wasn't any sounds of mass destruction coming from the room. Billy got to keep his money. Oh, yeeeaaah.

As Mike came over with cleaning solvents, resting his hand on Junior as he passed his AI, Gabe smiled at her brother, then looked to Sarah Graiman, who came up and said, "I'll start from his prow." Smiling up at Karr, she brushed her hand over his prow, feeling more than hearing his low-register purr of approval and thanks. She had recently helped him with a troublesome line of coding that once fixed, helped him regulate the conversion of processing to action. She did much like Gabrielle did, and that was keep a hand on the AI at all times, having learned that Karr found touch to be reassuring.

Billy walked a step closer, then abruptly turned to walk over to the first Kitt, whose odd optic was staring up at him with curiosity. After a moment, he crouched down and asked, "Is the KARR-2 still active?"

"Indeed. Furthermore, Karr tells me that his namesake is within a hundred miles."

"So the programming echoes back and forth?"

Kitt paused, then replied, "There is more echoes coming from Junior than there are my thoughts and programming goes towards him. He was designed after _me_, after all. The same works for Karr. The only time our programming will 'echo' back to our junior counterparts is if we send it through a strong signal, directed specifically towards the younger AI."

Zoë walked over to the first Kitt, carefully skirting around Karr. Mike watched as the techies ended up talking to the second AI that had been created, and leaned against his car, crossing his arms over his chest. His mind went back to the two hours he spent talking with Karr, getting to understand how his sister and the AI knew each other. He was still processing the facts that he had been given not even three hours ago.

.o.

"All right. You wanted to talk alone. I'm currently your passenger, and I'm quite unwillingly at your mercy. Now what do you want." Mike was close to fuming over the unexpected change in plans. He wanted to get moving on what he figured was the real reason why Kitt was unexpectedly ordered here, disobeying the FBI to return to the "Kitt cave," and continuing to disobey them through not answering their standing order to return ASAP.

Karr's deep voice was smooth, almost disinterested. "You will not give up on wondering how Gabrielle's fate has been entangled with my own. Therefore, I am taking the initiative and sparing my driver the emotional upheaval that will inevitably come from such a retelling of the events that transpired."

This really got Mike's attention. Kitt did the same thing for him by now, having learned that if someone didn't answer a direct question, they didn't want to talk about something for a specific reason. Because he had forgotten what it felt like to be put under the pressure of answering something that he really didn't want to say, Mike had unwittingly pulled a chain-reaction of events in his sister that was a mirror of his own reactions. He wondered if that was a trait that their father exhibited or if it was learned behavior.

Finally, he looked down at his hands, then at the console, which was still watching him with that eerie golden glow. "What happened?"

"You know the circumstances of her mother's unfortunate demise. I had been part of that, still very angry at the way that I had been treated early in my life." Karr turned down another road, still transmitting a real-time recording of the conversation to Junior who was following behind him. "I had helped kill her mother. And then had come close to killing her. I had been in a temporary body, a black Trans-Am that was an earlier model than this current body. I looked almost like Kitt."

"She mistook you for him."

"No. She saw me as Karr, knew that I was different . . . but those differences only went so deep." He was slowing his speed, beginning to get lost in the memories that were so carefully pushed back. "I was . . . going to run her over, pinning her against the wall before killing her. It was premeditated. She already had a broken leg, and wouldn't get far. Because of circumstances, she was already against the wall, so I changed plans so that I would pin her, then play. I would pull back, make her think that she was going to escape, only to accelerate and kill her."

Mike rubbed at his face, shocked at hearing what this AI had carefully planned, carefully thought about to put into action. He didn't realize that they had started their partnership though such a deadly circumstance. The man realized that Karr had gone silent, watching his reactions. So the man reached out to touch the dashboard, keeping his hand away from any sensitive equipment. "What happened next, Karr?"

"I pushed her against the wall. I spoke to her. And she was crying." The car slowed to a stop at a park, Kitt moving around them to face his much-older "brother." "I began to pull back, but her hands were on my hood, and I could _feel_ her hands on my hood. I _can_ feel, Mike. Kitt can't, or couldn't. I think he will have that upgrade with his new body, and I don't know if Junior can feel. But _I could feel her touching me_. And she . . . embraced me. She embraced me, Mike. Pressed her face against my scanner, and I felt her tears."

"Why was she crying?"

"I . . . I had thought that it was fear of death . . . she whispered to me that no matter what I did, she was sad that I hadn't chosen a better life, to prove everyone wrong about me. To rise above what everyone had done to me. She cried because I had not been treated fair in my young life." Karr's voice lowered. "I found out that I couldn't kill her because of her compassion. I had broken her leg, I was pressing her against the wall, threatening her life. And she didn't pity me or fear me. She had compassion for me." The passenger door opened. "She was the first person to refute the claim that I was a monster."

Getting out, Mike closed the door gently, resting his hand on the first AI's hood. "I'm sorry about my words, Karr."

"It is excusable. You had no knowing of what had transpired." The Trans-Am's engine never really had shut off, so now he stood idling.

That is, until Mike asked, "What happened after that?"

"You . . . are that interested."

"You're a cold bastard, and she's my little sister with a very warm heart. Let's do the math." Mike grinned, leaning against Karr's fender. His voice was filled with acceptance for the older AI, one who predated even _his_ human years of life, and the smile and amusement that bespoke of teasing the fantastic being that was his sister's partner.

Kitt rolled a few inches further, also very curious about the past. So Karr continued. "I was obviously shocked that she would first off hold onto me. Secondly, the moment she could speak past the pain, she had said the words, 'You're no monster . . . you're just confused and don't know who to trust or where to run, since you don't know where your safe place is.' I couldn't kill her. She understood me. She cut to the very basic problem that plagued every passing moment of my existence." The killer's engine rumbled, growling. "And I decided that she was right, and that enough was enough. I saved her. Brought her to Kitt and Michael, and asked to be deactivated. Despite wanting revenge, Michael was talked into letting me remain active. Kitt had synched up with me, I allowed him to, and he saw what had happened. He argued my case."

"And ever since, you two have been partners."

"I trust her. I trust Kitt, and Junior is slowly earning my trust."

"So you don't trust Michael."

"Your father is an idiot. But that does not make him untrustworthy."

Mike laughed, moving to sit against Kitt's hood. Karr watched the young man, then cut through his laughter. "But you are not a fool, and your mind is greater than your father's. You and Sarah I can trust after Gabrielle."

That had lead into a very thoughtful silence, which was continued until they were back on the Knight Estate. And Mike had replied before exiting Kitt's interior, "I trust you, Karr. You'll keep her safe."


	5. Chapter 5

You'll Get Used to It  
By Sinead

Chapter Five

.o.

"Mike, have you talked with Kitt?"

Looking up at Zoë, he grinned. "Considering that he's my partner?"

She looked over her shoulder at the AI, who was currently conversing with Karr, watching the two young women cleaning his undercarriage before getting out of the way and lowering the older AI back onto the ground. "No, have you really talked with him? As in asked him if he understands what he's going to do."

Mike paused his over-confidant reply in order to answer truthfully. "He knows that there's a high chance that the KARR-2 will be destroyed, and that he might have to play an integral role in that mission. He doesn't want to, but he knows that there's a high chance of that possibility." Crossing his arms over his chest, the former Army Ranger watched as Kitt moved out of the way to let Karr roll forward. "He's really begun to shine, Zoë. He's really becoming his own person."

"He's a machine . . . how can he become a person?" came the soft query.

Mike grinned lopsidedly and asked, "Zoë, have you talked with Kitt?"

She gave him a frustrated look. "I talk with him all the time, Mike."

"Not _our_ Kitt."

She blinked then looked to where Billy was sitting slack-jawed as the CPU of the original Kitt was explaining something away. Mike grinned. "Go sit with Billy. Kitt's been talking about a lot of his former exploits, adventures, and missions. I think that you'll like what he has to say. And I think that you'll understand that he's more human than a lot of those who are around us." He walked over to where Gabrielle was moving over to sit against Karr's left fender, passed the cars, and walked into the kitchen. He looked to his left, where Torres and Charles were having a quiet but heated argument. Torres was close to snarling, and Charles was keeping calm.

Mike kept the partition between himself and their line-of-sight while he started to quietly make the coffee, listening to what they were arguing about.

"This was _completely_ out of line, Charles!"

The older man sighed. "Alex, there was _no_ way that we could let this menace slide."

"So you thought that you'd hijack Kitt and take care of this problem?"

"I honestly didn't have anything to do with Kitt coming here."

"Then _who called him_," Torres snapped.

"You already heard him. And you disregarded him."

There was a pause, then a low tone of a growl, which got Graiman to speak again. "What's that look for?"

"That _killer_ out there called him?! The KARR-1?"

"That Karr has learned something. He has learned respect for life. He's reformed."  
"Regardless!"

Mike heard an angry rev from outside, identifying the engine to that of the Firebird in comparison to the Mustang. He winced. Karr was listening to this.

"I think you should understand that the KARR-1 has learned much since his activation." Charles paused before continuing, possibly to evaluate what reaction he was getting out of Alex Torres, Mike assumed. He silently stirred in the sugar and cream to his sister's coffee, and the cream for Sarah's coffee while listening to Charles' continuation. "I think that you have a lot to learn about the AIs that were activated before Mike and Sarah were even born."

"I don't need to learn anything about defunct former projects that went awry, causing destruction and multiple deaths. They should have been permanently offlined _years_ ago!"

That was when Mike heard Gabrielle's warning shout, followed by the solid _slam_ of something hitting the wall. He took the coffee out, handed Sarah's mug to her and the other two to Gabrielle. Without thinking, he flung himself between the wall that separated Karr and Torres, flinging his arms wide and taking a broad stance. _"Karr!"_

He heard the car roar forward again, and flinched, turning his head away before hearing the tires squeal. Something brushed his legs, right below his knees. He heard the deep growl of Karr's voice causing his jeans to tremble with the bass. _"Move."_

"I'm not going to move," he replied, his voice quiet, not scared, but respectful of the power that he was facing down.

"I do not want to harm you. Now _move_." But Karr didn't edge forward, but the powerful engine under the hood snarled.

"If you harm Torres, you'll harm Doc Graiman."

"I will not hurt or kill Charles Graiman."

"The chances of accidentally hurting him is not something I want to take, no matter how much I hate Torres." Mike drew in an unsteady breath. "Neither me or Michael, and especially Gabrielle would let you be offlined. None of us would ever let that come to pass. I promise you. I would and will do everything in my power to keep that fate from happening to you."

Gabrielle watched as her brother and her AI faced each other off. She saw how Sarah was frozen to the spot, how everyone was focused upon this conflict. Then slowly, slowly, Karr backed up, reversing into his maintenance berth, turned his lights off, but kept his scanner running, the golden line smoothly running back and forth with its distinctive hiss.

Mike followed Karr, and came to stand beside the AI's shell, just beside a fender, leaning against it casually, being a man's man by not getting emotional, just reassuring. Gabrielle walked up with both mugs just in time to hear Karr murmur, "I almost run you over, and you come after me to rest against _my_ fender?"

"Hey, you didn't bust my kneecaps," Mike retorted, accepting his black coffee from Gabrelle, holding his hand out for her mug. "Up on his hood. I think he needs it."

She nodded, and honestly, Mike classified how she sat up there as "cuddling." Smiling at his adorable little sister half-curled up on Karr's hood, he set his coffee on the workbench and grabbed a blanket off of the couch to settle around Gabe, tucking her feet in and patting Karr's hood before moving over to lean against Kitt.

"I wish that you would sit on my hood like she does on Karr."

Mike's head swiveled to look at the dashboard of his AI, and he smiled, then obliged, chuckling, letting his legs hang down off of the side in case either of them had to move. "Got lonely, partner?"

Kitt didn't answer for a long moment. "I enjoy your company, Mike."

The man smiled and patted the side of the car. "I enjoy yours, too. I don't know how I managed without you, Kitt."

"Just him?"

"Oh, _burn_," Zoë whispered, grinning as Sarah faced Mike off.

He stumbled for a moment, then put his mug down and held a hand out to her. "Care to join me?"

"I suppose I could be won over." Sarah accepted his hand, sitting beside him on Kitt's hood.

The young AI released a low sound of happiness, causing the three humans in close proximity to him to smile. He was really learning, and he was really becoming his own person, just as Mike had hoped he would be. He picked his coffee up and rested his free hand against the metal of his partner's shell, rubbing it a few times in reassurance.

This was how Knight Research should have been running from the start.

With friendship.

.o.

An engine _snarled_ to life.

Gabrielle's hands stilled from where she had been working on a report of her diplomatic mission to Canada regarding the return of a criminal who had escaped to America. International stuff annoyed her, and Karr was unhappy about the amount of water that was prevalent in the northern country. "Karr? Don't kill Torres."

Her comm-link relayed his response. "I am not running my engine, Gabrielle. Neither is Junior."

She froze for a half second, then scrambled out of the room and darted through the old mansion halls to get to the garage. The hired staff of the mansion knew the Knights very well, and knew that if there was to be someone running, there was usually a good reason behind it. They also knew to get out of the way. Too many people had been literally run over while either the elder or younger Knight was called out on an emergency. Usually, however, it was the newer staff who were knocked over, and when they demanded that the older staff stand by them in defense, they quickly found out that the older staff took the side of the Knights. Why?

Because there were usually lives on the line.

Once Gabrielle was in the garage, she skid to a halt, staring at the car now idling.

Wow.

Her dad was sitting behind the wheel, grinning like he was young again, looking ready to peel out. She grinned and got out of the way, darting into Karr's open door, seeing her elder brother diving into Junior's seat, and all just in time to take off, chasing after the refurbished Knight Industries Two Thousand with yells of exhilaration. All three AIs synched up communication links and were passing information among themselves while Kitt tried out his new body, getting used to the feel of the concept car.

"Damn, he's fast! Karr, what is he?"

"A Firebird, just as I am. Only his is the concept for the 2011 version."

"It's pretty hot."

"That's what you had said about me."

She heard her father and brother laughing at her. "Sugar-bear, nothing is as sizzling as the 2002 Trans-Am Firebird."

"That's better," Karr said smugly. "Now never call me 'sugar-bear' again."

"Except for a Mustang," Mike shot in as he and Junior slid behind Karr and Gabe on the highway, still following Kitt.

"I have to disagree," Kitt's tenor replied. "Trans-Ams are better than Mustangs."

"Guess you're outnumbered, boys!" Gabe replied as she gunned Karr's engine, shooting ahead of her father and taking the lead. Time to play!

Their celebratory joyride lasted long into the night.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** I want to thank you all for all your reviews! I'm sorry that I haven't gotten around to telling you that in the previous chapter. About half of this chapter had been part of Chapter 4, which is why this has been updated so quickly. It'll probably be a week or so before I'm able to update with Chapter 6. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think! Reviews inspire me!  
_


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